


It Wasn't Like They Said It'd Be

by ShyAudacity, SmilesRawesome



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Abusive Grundy, Abusive Relationships, Aliases, Angst, Archie needs a hug, Beronica is minor and not all important to the plot its just a fact, Bisexual Archie Andrews, Child Neglect, Children, Domestic Violence, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Grundy is a Monster, Hurt Archie, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Manipulation, On the Run, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Paranoia, Parent Archie, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rescue Missions, Reunions, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Starts out during episode four, Stockholm Syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-06 05:12:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12204555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyAudacity/pseuds/ShyAudacity, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmilesRawesome/pseuds/SmilesRawesome
Summary: Archie is suddenly all kinds of anxious as he walks up the front steps to his house. There’s a voice in the back of his head saying that he shouldn’t be here, that he should go back and beg Grundy for forgiveness, but he doesn’t listen. He keeps moving until he’s standing in front of the door. Archie doesn’t realize it until he reaches for the doorbell, but his hands are shaking. His throat nearly closes when no one comes to the door right away.A stray tear runs down the side of his face just as the front door opens. He knows how stupid he must look, a barely twenty-year-old kid with two of his own kids on each arm. Archie is sure that he if was someone else, he’d laugh at the situation in front of him.Fred is looking at him like he can’t believe that it’s real.“Archie?”“I’m sorry, I know it’s been a while… but I didn’t know what else to do.”ORArchie runs away with Grundy so that they can be together, then he returns to Riverdale five years later with two kids and a whole mess of issues.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> One night about two months ago my friend Amy (tumblr user autisticarchieandrews) told me about this brilliant idea for a fic that she had. I was so in love with the plot that I asked her if I could write it. Thank god that she said yes. She told me what she wanted to see happen, I added a few of my own ideas, and together we wrote this fic! Honestly, Amy deserves most of the credit because she's a goddamn genius. Anyways enough rambling, here's the fic.
> 
> Unbeta'd and title from One Color by Neil Hilborn and Ollie Schminkey.

“Hey, I’m already here… where are you?”

 _“Hiding in my car,”_ Grundy says over the phone. _“I think I saw a janitor, it’s not safe for me to come in yet.”_

“I don’t understand what you’re so paranoid about. Everyone in town is at the closing night of the drive-in; no one is going to see us. Isn’t that why we agreed to meet at this time in the first place? To avoid getting caught? Besides, it’s nine o’clock on a Friday, no one in their right mind is going to be at school at this time of night.”

Archie and Miss Grundy had made plans to meet up at the school, in the music room. He knew that everyone in town would be at the last picture show, there was no way that they could get caught.

Archie had a gift for her, a new bow for her cello. It was crazy expensive, but Archie felt as though her owed her that much. She’d done so much for him in regards to his music, for helping him grow, he couldn’t ever repay her for that. He might actually be able to thank her… if she actually came into the high school to see him.

“Will you please just come inside already? I have something for you.”

_“Just… just give me a minute. I’ll be right there.”_

Archie hears the unmistakable sound of a car door slamming shut before Grundy hangs up the phone. It’s another five minutes of him sitting around and rubbing his hands together before he hears steps coming down the hallway, then the door creaks open and he watches her slip inside.

Miss Grundy has an anxious look on her face.

“Did anyone see you come in here?” She whispers.

“I don’t think so… why are you whispering? There’s no one else here.”

“You can’t be sure, Archie.” She snaps.

He feels like he might swallow his own tongue. Archie looks up at her sheepishly, trying to push away the regret; she sighs at him.

“I’m sorry, I know that you meant well.”

“It’s okay.” He mumbles, he reaches behind the bench and pulls out the gift box. “I got you something.”

She laughs a little. “Is this to make me feel better about my tragic past?”

“No, it’s a… it’s a thank you gift for everything that you’ve done for me.”

Archie watched as she sat down next to him, undoing the red bow wrapped around the box. He didn’t miss the way that she gasped, or the surprised look that she gave him.

“Archie, this… you cannot afford this.”

“I pawned one of my guitars… I wanted to give you something special. Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful but…” Miss Grundy gets to her feet, pacing around. “You can’t do this. You can’t just buy nice things for me. This isn’t right, we shouldn’t be doing this.”

“But I want this, what’s so wrong about that?”

“What’s wrong Archie is that _I’ll lose my job_. You’re a minor, I’ll go to jail. If anyone finds out about us, we’re done, that’s it, _no more us_ , end of discussion. Do you understand that? Are you even listening to me? There isn’t anything that we could- wait.”

Archie furrowed his brow. “Wait what? What is it?”

She taps on his breast bone with her fingers, an unreadable look in her eye.

“We have to leave.” Grundy tells him firmly, beginning to ramble. “We have to get out of the state, leave town, anything but we have to get as far away from Riverdale as we possibly can. If we don’t then someone is going to find out and both of us will be in trouble. You and I, we could do it. All we have to do is put this stupid town in our rearview mirror, and then we’ll be safe. We can be together for as long as we want… you want that don’t you? You want to be with me, right?”

He nods numbly, speaking softly. “Yeah, yeah I do.”

“Then we have to leave, tonight, right now.”

“Tonight? Are you sure?”

“Archie, if we wait around any longer then someone will find out about us. We can’t risk that, we have to get out of here as soon as possible, it’s th-.”

“Only way that we can be safe,” Archie says, placing both hands on her shoulders. “I know.”

“Good… then let’s go.”

Ten minutes later, Archie is in the front seat of Grundy’s car, watching out the window as she pulls down the dark street. He’s all kinds of nervous, but he feels like he has to do this, as a final way of repaying her. He stops her when she nearly drives past his house.

“Wait, wait- stop! It’s this one. Okay… just, um- give me a few minutes to grab a few things, alright?”

She nods at him, squeezing his hand momentarily. He leans over the gearshift, kissing her forehead before quietly exiting the car. He knows, instinctually, that the movie will be over soon, people will be coming home, specifically Archie’s dad. Archie doesn’t want to be here when his dad gets back, or his friends for that matter; he can’t imagine having to explain to them why he’s leaving. He knows that they wouldn’t understand… no one would.

He runs up to his room; an ache grows in his chest knowing that this is the last time that he’d going to be here for a while, maybe even forever. Archie takes a minute to drink everything in, willing himself not forget what this place looks like. Getting back to the task at hand, he goes to his closet and pulls out his old duffle bag, stuffing random shirts, pants, boxer briefs, and his favorite maroon colored sweatshirt inside. Archie’s considering whether or not he should bring his letter man jacket when he hears a car honk outside, startling him.

Taking that as his cue to leave, Archie makes his way downstairs. He spots Vegas in the kitchen; Vegas whines at him, as if already knowing his plans.

“Hey, buddy.” Archie says, getting down on one knee. “I’ll be back soon, alright? I promise.”

Vegas whines again as Archie hugs him lightly, trying to keep his feelings at bay. He gets to his feet again, halfway to the door when he realizes that there’s something that he needs to do.

Archie grabs a pen and the first piece of paper that he can find, scribbling at top speed. He keeps his note short and to the point, knowing that he doesn’t have much. Once he’s done, he uses one of his Dad’s coffee mugs to keep in place on the counter top. As he walks out the front door and down the porch steps, he knows he should have said more, knows that this is a shitty thing for him to do.

When Archie and Grundy are getting on the highway out of town, he can’t stop thinking about the note that he left. He can’t stop imagining his Dad’s heartbroken face as he reads the cryptic letter.

 _Sorry, I’ll explain later… I love you._  

***

The first thing that they do is change their names. They hide out in a small town right near the state line just long enough for the paper work to go through. He’s no longer Archie Andrews, now he’s Matty Watkins; he can’t seem to get used to the way that it feels inside of his mouth. Himself and Grundy- who is now _Melissa-_ elope at the courthouse an hour before they leave the state. When they had gotten new ID’s, Archie lied, telling the woman at the DMV that he’s already eighteen.  Grundy laughs loudly at him later when he tells her about it.

“Don’t worry,” She says. “You never did look fifteen, anyways.”

***

In the first six months of being on the road, they move four times.

They start out in Louisiana; Archie falls in love with New Orleans. All of the music makes him feel like he belongs there, it distracts him from the overwhelming, constant feeling of homesickness. Then, six weeks in, Grundy bursts into their small studio apartment after she gets off work and tells him that he needs to pack his bags. She says:

“A cop followed all the way home, they know about us. We’re caught, _we have to leave_.”

The two of them are gone within the hour, already on their way to Boston. They stay in Boston for a little over two months, then Philadelphia, and then Atlanta. Every time they move it’s due to Grundy’s own paranoia, she doesn’t let Archie try and convince her to stay. Instead, she yells at him, tells him that he can go home if he’s so unhappy with her. Despite the emotional turmoil, Archie stays with her, he stays on the short leash that she seems to have him tethered to.

Two and a half weeks after they arrive in Atlanta, Archie gets drunk for the first time.   

They’re in the apartment, the small one bedroom in the busiest part of the city where the noises never stop. Grundy has been pushing shots of Vodka in front of Archie for the last hour. He started to feel foggy after the third one, and now, six shots deep, his whole body feels like Jell-O. Archie feels like his neck muscles have been replaced with a noodle. When Grundy walks over and plants herself in his lap, he groans; it takes him a long moment to focus his attention on her face.

She rubs her thumb across his cheek and down his jaw bone. She’s not even drunk.

“Tell me you love me.”

“I do.”

Her hand tightens around his chin. “Say it like you mean it, Matt.”

Archie slurs. “I love you s’much.”

He tries to kiss her, but she leans away from him. 

Grundy smirks at his wrecked state, let’s go of his face, and then gets off of his lap. As he walks towards the bedroom, she calls out:

“If you puke, I’m making you sleep on the couch.”

***

A little over a year after they’ve left Riverdale, Grundy tells Archie that she’s pregnant.

He can’t say that he’s surprised, it’s not like they’ve been careful, or trying to prevent this from happening. Archie doesn’t know whether to panic or cry, maybe both. His tongue is dry as he attempts to speak.

“H-How- how long- how far alo-.”

“Two weeks, isn’t this great? We can start a family now.”

Archie manages a half nod, then walks forward and wraps shaky arms around her shoulders. As he rests his cheek against her forehead, he has an overwhelming urge to call his Dad, or maybe Jughead. He wants so badly to explain this whole mess to them, to just hear their voices again. Grundy is always reminding way that’s a bad idea, tells Archie how angry everyone would be, how angry _they are_.  

“We should go back to Louisiana,” Archie says quietly.

Grundy pulls away, glaring at him. “Why would we do that?”

“I don’t- I don’t know I thought it would be a good idea. Think about it: the food is great, the music is even better, and it’s not like we have to stay forever, you know? Besides, you can’t tell me that you didn’t like New Orleans at least a little bit.”

“Yeah, until _the cops were onto us_.” She snaps.

“You don’t know that for sure,” Archie tries; when she rolls her eyes, he keeps going. “Look what if- how about we stay just until after the baby is born, huh? Then we could go anywhere you and we’d never have to go back to New Orleans again, I promise. What do you say?”

She glares at him again. “Fine. We’ll go to Louisiana, but we’re not going back to New Orleans.”

Eight months later, Benjamin Maddox Watkins is born in the early hours of a Sunday morning in Baton Rouge.

Archie cries when he holds Ben for the first time, he can already see some resemblance to his dad. He can’t help to think that the birth certificate should say Benjamin _Andrews_. He doesn’t say anything to Grundy, he can only imagine what kind of fury she would unleash on him if he so much as mentioned it.

The three of them are on the road to Kansas City three days later.

***

Once they get to Kansas City, Grundy is nice to Archie for a little while. She’s more relaxed, isn’t as quick to snap at him when he does something that she doesn’t approve of. Mother hood seems to suit her well. In some strange, twisted sense, they’re the picture-perfect family. It makes Archie forget about everything that he left behind. He doesn’t think about Riverdale for months.   

Then, Grundy becomes pregnant again, and everything seems to go downhill overnight. He’d gotten another job as soon as she told him, wanting to make up for the extra expenses that they’d struggled with the first time. Somewhere near month four of the pregnancy, a week after Ben’s second birthday, Archie comes home late from the restaurant and finds Grundy in the kitchen, all alone with music at an almost deafening volume.

“Where’s Ben?” He yells over the music.

She just barely gestures over her shoulder towards the shut door behind her.

Archie crosses the space in less than five strides; he finds Ben in their dark bedroom, standing up in his makeshift crib and all but screaming bloody murder. Archie rushes over and scoops him up in a second, cradling him against his shoulder.

“Hey, hey little man, it’s okay. Papa’s here.” He walks out of the bedroom and back into the kitchen, turning down the music. “Did you know that he was crying?”

“Yeah.” She says, not looking up from her book.

He freezes right where he’s standing, stunned at the words that left her mouth.

“Why didn’t you go check on him?”

“Because it wouldn’t have mattered, he just would have kept crying anyways.”

“Mel, you can’t just-.”

Her icy glare nearly turns him to stone.

“Are you questioning my parenting, Matt?”

Archie’s jaw practically snaps shut. She only calls him Matt when she’s upset with him, it’s how he knows to stop while he’s ahead.

 “No, no I’m sorry. Forget I said anything.”

She stands up, smirking at him. “That’s what I thought.”

That night after he’s sure that she’s asleep, he gets out of bed as quietly as he can. He exits the room, walking over to where Ben had fallen asleep in his play pen. Careful not to wake him, he lifts up sleeping two-year-old and holds him against his shoulder, walking over to the couch. Archie lies down on the couch with Ben lying on his chest, wrapped in his favorite blanket.

“It’s not always going to be like this,” Archie whispers to the toddler. “I promise. Things will be better someday.”

After finding both of them still asleep on the couch the next morning, Grundy doesn’t speak to Archie for two days.

***

Six months later, four years to the day that they left town, Grundy gives birth to baby Katie, and for weeks does everything that she can to stay away from her. Grundy had been commenting (mostly complaining) for weeks about how much bigger she looked in this pregnancy opposed to with Ben. She kept telling Archie that her body would never look the same, would swear up and down that they’re never having another baby after this.   

Once she was born, Grundy would only hold Katie long enough to feed her, then hand her right back to Archie. The nurses and their OB/GYN call it Post-Partum Depression, he can’t say that he disagrees with them. Another part of him thinks that it might just be part of her character, but he doesn’t dare say that out loud. This leaves Archie to change every diaper, to get up in the middle of the night every time she cries. 

Grundy goes back to work less than two weeks after Katie is born. A month later they pack up and move to South Dakota, and Archie wonders if the escape he’s always dreaming about is ever actually going to happen.

***

It’s almost comical watching how Grundy acts in public opposed to when they’re at home.

When the four of them go out together, she turns into this goddess of a woman. She’s the mom that everyone silently wishes that they had. Grundy pushes Ben on the swings at the park down the street from their upstairs apartment, makes baby talk with Katie in front her work friends. She’s an even more convincing wife, acting as though her and Archie couldn’t possibly be any more in love with each other.  

It makes him anxious to watch her act like this, because he knows as soon as they leave, as soon as the door closes behind him, the show is over. Then she reverts back into the woman who tells him how stupid she thinks he is. She becomes the woman who ignores him as a form of payback, who screams in his face and belittles him in front of their children. Archie hates it, makes him wish that he had never listened to her that night in the music room. He wishes that he’d stayed home with his Dad and all his friends, with _his family_.  

One night, when Katie is eight months old, she gets a fever. The poor girl cries all day, shrieking any time that Archie tries to put her down, it’s draining. They don’t have any medicine, he’s been counting down the hours all afternoon until Grundy got off work. He made the mistake of not waiting until after she’d been home for a few minutes before asking her for the keys to her car.

She sneered at him. “Why?”

“Katie has a fever, and we don’t have any medicine. My car is at the shop until tomorrow.”

“She doesn’t need meds, she’ll be fine.”

“Mel, her fever is a 103, if it gets any higher then-.”

Archie doesn’t want to think about he’d have to do if Katie’s fever got any higher. He knows that it means doctors, likely a visit to the emergency room across town. Both of those are things that they can’t afford; they’ve been wrestling with making ends meet since Ben was born, despite the fact the Archie still has two jobs.

He resorts to giving Grundy his best kicked puppy face, praying that it will actually work. It must at least a little bit because she dangles her car keys in front of his face, holding them out of reach when he tries to grab them.

“Meds and nothing else or I lock you out of the bedroom, got it?”

_Good, I don’t want to sleep next to you anyways._

Archie nods, letting her press the keys into his hands a tad to forcefully.

As she walks away, Grundy calls over her shoulder:

“Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

***

Archie makes the ultimate decision that he needs to take his kids and leave four months later.

Ben is in the living room watching some cartoon that Archie can’t remember the name of. Archie is keeping an eye on him from the kitchen while making sure Katie doesn’t choke on the dry cereal she’s gumming on. At some point, Grundy walks out of the bedroom, and Ben looks right at her.

“Mama, can I has some milk?”

She halts, narrows her eyes at him for a moment before walking over to the small refrigerator, pulling out the carton of milk, and dumping the last of it into a sippy cup.

Archie doesn’t miss the smug grin that settles across her face as she crouches in front of where Ben is seated in front of the TV. All the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“Tell me you love me.” Grundy says.

“I love you.”

She holds it out of reach from his small arms.

“Say it like you mean it, Benny. You love me, don’t you?”

“I do, Mama, I do!” He whines. “Please can I has my milk?”

Grundy finally moves the cup back to his reach, holding it out with a limp wrist. She refuses to let go until he mumbles a _thank you_. Then, she rubs her hand down the side of his small face, making him look up at her.

“Good boy, Ben. For a moment there I was worried that you were turning into your Daddy. We wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

Ben frowns at her, then turns to look at Archie, a heartbreaking look still spread across his face.

He feels like he’s going to be sick to his stomach. This is the exact moment that Archie decides to leave. He’s been saving money since Katie was born. He has a secret bank account that he hasn’t told anyone about, he makes sure that all his bank statements get sent to his work place instead of their apartment so Grundy wouldn’t find out. He’s got a little over a thousand dollars, he could do it- he has to do it.

Archie puts his two-week notice in with his boss, Grace, later that day, explaining the situation to her as best he can without incriminating himself. She’s understanding and gracious; she gives him a small bonus and a solid hug.

Grace pulls him aside on his last day at the restaurant, pushes a crumpled piece of paper in his hand.

“I want you to call me when you get somewhere safe, alright? I don’t care how long it takes, just let me know that you’re okay.”

“I will, I promise I will. Thank you.”

The next morning Archie is a ball of nerves. He had tossed and turned in bed all night, going back and forth over whether or not he should go through with his plan. Then his thoughts would always go back to his kids and how they shouldn’t have to grow up like this, with a cynical mother who is verbally abusive. He’d remind himself that he’s just barely twenty, that he’s being playing this game with Grundy for five years now and no matter what he does he just can’t seem to win.

He’s bouncing Katie on his leg when Grundy walks out of the bathroom in her work uniform, she glares at Archie’s relaxed state.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready for work?”

Archie clears his throat, willing himself not to shatter into a million, anxious pieces.

“Actually, Grace called while you were in the shower. A pipe burst at the restaurant in the middle of the night, so she closed it for the day. She said we should be up and running again by tomorrow.”

Grundy gives him side eye as if she is trying to decide whether or not she believed him.

“Alright, whatever. I’ll be back at six, and dinner better not come from the microwave tonight.”

Archie waits until ten minutes after she’s left before he runs into the bedroom and pulls the duffle bag out from under the mattress. He makes quick work of grabbing clothes for Katie, Ben, and himself; it reminds of how he’d done this five years ago in his own bedroom. Only now he’s running away from a woman, not with one.

Less than twenty minutes later, he’s piling Katie and Ben into the backseat of his green, double doored car. Everything that he packed fits into the duffle bag and stray backpack he’d found in the closet; Archie’s heart sinks at the sight, but he keeps moving.

Ben speaks up as Archie is buckling his car seat.

“Papa, where we goin’?” 

“We’re going to Omaha, buddy,” He says. “It’s our own little adventure. Just you, me, and sissy.”

Archie thanks whoever is listening that Ben doesn’t ask why Mama isn’t coming with them.

He doesn’t regret chucking his cell phone out the window once they were on the highway, Archie knows that Grundy would have tracked them down and dragged them back home, she would have found a way to make him pay for it.

***

He makes it on his own with the kids for a month before he’s nearly out of money, and out of ideas. He hasn’t been able to find a job. The three of them have to sleep in Archie’s cramped car because he can’t afford a hotel room, not anymore. He was hoping that things would never get this bad, in a way he feels like he’s only made things worse by leaving.

Once he gets down to his last two twenty-dollar bills, Archie knows exactly what he has to do. He uses it to buy gas. Then, he drives to the first auto salvage yard that he can find and sells his piece of crap car for $650. Miraculously, the bus station is only a block away; he has just enough money for three one-way tickets to Riverdale. Much to his relief, the bus leaves later that afternoon; they’ll be in Riverdale by the next morning.

The sun is setting behind them as the bus pulls out of the station. Katie is asleep in Archie’s lap, and Ben is in the aisle seat next to him.

He speaks up when he realizes that they’re leaving town.

“Where we goin’ now?”

Not knowing what else to say, Archie tells him the truth.

“We’re going home.”

***

When the taxi cab pulls down his street at 10:30 the next morning, Archie can’t stop his eyes from welling up with tears.  He can see his house, his _home_ , it’s right there in front of him. He didn’t think that he’d ever be able to come back here again, not with Grundy still around at least. Archie just barely keeps his composure as he pulls his duffle bag and the back pack out of the trunk, Katie and Ben on either side of him.

“Papa, what’s this place?” Ben asks, pulling on his pant leg.

Archie hoists Katie onto his hip after pulling the bags onto his shoulder.

“This is where I grew up, Buddy. Here… hold my hand.”

Archie is suddenly all kinds of anxious as he walks up the front steps to his house. There’s a voice in the back of his head saying that he shouldn’t be here, that he should go back and beg Grundy for forgiveness, but he doesn’t listen. He keeps moving until he’s standing in front of the door. Archie doesn’t realize it until he reaches for the doorbell, but his hands are shaking. His throat nearly closes when no one comes to the door right away.

A million thoughts start racing through his head. What if his Dad moved away? What if his Dad doesn’t recognize him? What if he’s angry? What if he starts yelling? What if his Dad tells him to leave? What if something bad happened to him?

A stray tear runs down the side of his face just as the front door opens. He knows how stupid he must look, a barely twenty-year-old kid with two of his own kids on each arm. Archie is sure that he if was someone else, he’d laugh at the situation in front of him.

Fred is looking at him like he can’t believe that it’s real.

“Archie?”

“I’m sorry, I know it’s been a while… but I didn’t know what else to do.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna wait to post this chapter, but then I finished the fic and got real excited! Expect the final installment within the next week or so. Enjoy!

While Archie is introducing Katie and Ben to Old Vegas, Fred calls Jughead. Jughead calls everyone else, everyone else being Betty, Veronica, and Kevin. All of them arrive at the Andrews house less than twenty minutes later, bustling through the front door like their lives depend on it.

Archie turns around from his seat at the counter; Jughead is leading the group like an alpha in a pack of werewolves. Betty and Veronica are standing behind him holding hands and Kevin is in the back, nervously biting his lip.

Jughead speaks up first, a sad smile on his face.

“I don’t know whether to punch you or give you a hug.”

Archie laughs a little, knowing that Jughead is joking to some extent.

“A hug would be good.”

Jughead moves forward as Archie gets up from his seat. He’s stiff for a moment before relaxing into the hug; Archie can’t remember the last time that he was touched like this that hadn’t been the result of a fight, or Grundy whispering in his ear _this is what happens when you don’t listen to me_. Archie sighs after a long moment, patting Jughead on the back and pulling away.

Betty clears her throat before speaking up.

“Arch, who is this?” She asks curiously.

He follows her gaze downwards to where Ben in hiding his face in the back of Archie’s legs.

“This is Ben. Can you say “hi,” big guy?”

Ben shakes his head against Archie’s hand as it runs over his sandy hair; everyone coos or laughs lightly at his response.

“Sorry, he’s not usually shy-.” He points over his shoulder to where his Dad is holding Katie. “That’s Katie over there.”

“Where’s their mother, Archie?” Veronica asks, not an ounce of subtly in her voice.

“She left me,” He lies. Archie isn’t ready to tell his friends and his Dad about his failure of a great escape, how he struggled for a month before he finally tucked his tail between his legs and came home. He can’t tell them, he’s too embarrassed.

Veronica scoffs, mumbling under her breath.

“Figures.”

Betty elbows her. “V-.”

“No, Betty, I’m not going to be nice about this.” Veronica snaps. “He left for five years and we’re just expected to welcome him back with open arms. Well I can’t, I won’t do it. Hell, I don’t even know who this is, for all I know he could-.”

Panicked, Archie interrupts her. “Ronnie, _please_ , not in front of them. I swear we can talk about this later, but I’m begging you please don’t fight with me here. Not in front of my kids.”

Veronica looks stunned for a moment, shocked that Archie interrupted her. Nonetheless, she closes her mouth, nodding at him and crossing her arms over her chest.

Archie is relieved for a moment, he knows that this is going to come back to bite him, that’s all he’s been able to think about since his dad opened the door and let him in the house. He’s only half focused on the rest of the conversation, he hears Betty say something about bringing over an old playpen that the twins used to use for Katie and Ben, Archie thinks that he agreed with her.

All of his friends excuse themselves and leave twenty minutes later, saying that they’ll be back later that night. He feels sick to his stomach knowing that he’s going to have to tell them the truth eventually.

Kevin lingers in the doorway, speaking up for the first time since he arrived.

“I’m really glad that you’re back, Archie.”

***

Much as they promised, Archie’s friends are scattered around his living room as he comes downstairs after putting Katie and Ben to bed. His anxiety spikes as he sees them, but he knows that there’s no avoiding this conversation. His hands shake as he sits on the couch, he makes them into fists to try and get them to stop.

“Alright,” He says timidly. “Let me have it.”

It’s a nightmare, but Archie feels like he deserves it. All of them are speaking at once, ripping into him and continually getting closer to full-out yelling. His friends keep repeating the same questions: where did you go? Why did you leave? How could you do that to us? Who were you with? What happened while you were gone? Why did she leave you?

“She didn’t-.” He interrupts, the questions come to a halt. “She didn’t leave me.”

Veronica sneers at him. “But you said-.”

“I know what I said earlier... I lied. I left her; I’d been saving money in a private bank account since Katie was born, just in case. I-I had everything planned out, I told her that I had the day off, and then after I knew she was at work I packed up my car, took the kids and left. I was on my own with them for a month, I tried to make it work, I really did.”

“Okay, but why _now_?” Jughead inquires. “What made you decide to leave? Why not leave when things got bad in the first place?”

“Because I was stuck, Jug. She was manipulative and controlling. She started talking to Ben the way that she would talk to me and- I couldn’t let them grow up like that. I couldn’t let her ruin them, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

“You keep saying she. Who’s “she”?”

Archie has to take a deep breath before he continues.

“Mel-… Grundy.”

The room goes silent, everyone turns to look at Archie.

Betty sputters. “Wait- Grundy, you mean like Miss Grundy? The old music teacher Grundy?”

“Yeah.” He mutters shamefully, not looking up at any of them. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jughead stand up. Archie flinches when he kicks the coffee table out of anger, then flinches again when Jughead storms out of the house, slamming the front door behind him.

Veronica runs after him before anyone can say anything else, barely remembering to close the door behind her.

Upstairs, Katie starts crying; Archie moves to get up, but Betty stops him.

“No, no it’s okay, I got her.” She says, moving swiftly up the stairs.

Archie sinks back into the couch, forcing himself to swallow around the growing lump in his throat. He presses his hands into his eyes, wishing that he could take this back, wishing that none of this was real and that he’d never left in the first place. He nearly jumps out of his skin when a warm hand settles on his shoulder, he looks over to see Kevin giving him a sad smile.

“I’m proud of you for getting out of there when you needed to.” He says. “You did what you had to, not just for you but for your kids. No one is going to judge you for that.”

Archie lets out a shuttering breath, grateful that Kevin is being so understanding. He nearly melts under the touch, then scrubs a hand over his face. This is going to be much harder than he thought.

 *** 

There’s always someone at the house with Archie after that, if not his dad, then it’s usually Jughead or Kevin. Regardless, all of his friends have to re-learn how to act around him. Archie is far more skittish than he used to be, that’s the first thing that all of them noticed. He flinches or moves away if you get too close to him or make a sudden movement.

Just as well, he doesn’t always answer to his name right away. The gang often finds themselves having to repeat his name multiple times before Archie responds; Archie later admits to having changed his name, that he’s still used to being called Matty, but advises that no one call him that. Everyone sticks to repeating themselves, not wanting to make Archie uncomfortable. 

Another thing is his eating habits. Archie won’t even serve himself until Ben has cleared his plate. When Jughead calls him out on it two weeks after he’s returned, Archie tells him that they didn’t always have enough food for everyone, even on nights when he brought leftovers home from the restaurant. He’s so used to waiting until his kids have eaten that most of the time he doesn’t even realize that he’s hungry.

Most nights he insists on making dinner, he tells his dad about the handful of restaurant jobs he’d had while he was on the run with Grundy. Working had been a way for him to escape, he found it to be the most relaxing part of his day. Cooking became something that he learned to love, he’d take any excuse to put his skills to good use.

After the first time Fred tastes just how undeniably good his son’s food is, he makes sure to keep the refrigerator full.

When Jughead comes over he always brings one of his old textbooks and notes from his college classes. The two of them get to work on making sure that Archie gets his GED. On the days when neither of them are in the mood to study, Jughead sits Archie down in front of the TV and catches him up on all the movies he missed out on while he was gone. Archie doesn’t tell him that he’d managed to see a handful of these movies already, he’s just grateful that he gets to spend time with his best friend again.

It doesn’t take him long to realize that he has a growing crush on Kevin. Archie knew that he liked boys as well as girls before he left with Grundy, he just hadn’t gotten around to telling his friends. Every time that he sees Kevin walk in the door, his heart starts to race, and not in a bad way for once. Kevin does a good job at catching him up on all of the town gossip that he was absent for and distracting him when he’s having a bad day. Sometimes Archie wants to talk about it and their afternoon turns into a couch therapy session; more often than not, he’ just content to let Kevin talk his ear off.

Today, Archie is reading a book on the couch while Katie and Ben are napping when Kevin walks in with a steaming mug of hot chocolate. He gestures to the opposite end of the couch.

“Can I…?”

Archie nods.

“Yeah, sure.” He draws in his legs Kevin has room to sit, setting his book aside.

Kevin shifts so that his position mirrors Archie’s, their knees knocking together. The two twenty-year old’s sit in silence for a minute before Kevin speaks up.

“What are you thinking about?”  

“Her.” He says quietly.

Kevin doesn’t have to ask who he’s talking about. It’s an unspoken thing between them; anytime Archie says things like Her or She, Kevin knows that he’s talking about Grundy.

“She caught me once… with a man, I mean.”

Archie is thankful that Kevin simply nods instead of questioning the fact that he just came out. When Kevin places a supportive hand on his knee, Archie keeps going with the story.

“It was a guy that I worked with at the restaurant; I figured what She didn’t know wouldn’t hurt Her, you know? I must have had the day’s wrong or something because she came home while we were kissing on the couch. I don’t think that I’ve ever been so mortified in all my life.”

“What did you do?” Kevin asks.

“He fled for the hills, no surprise there. She, um, she pushed me into the bedroom, starting yelling at me and then…”

“Then what, Arch?”

“Then we made Ben.” He says quietly, trying to cover up his discomfort with a laugh.

Kevin sucks in a harsh breath, covering his mouth with his hand. Archie keeps going before he can say anything else.

“Don’t me wrong, I love Ben, I do. I can’t imagine not being his dad but… sometimes I look at him and all I can think about is that day, how useless and defeated I felt in that moment. I hate knowing that Ben is tied to such a horrible day, he doesn’t deserve that.”

“I understand.” Kevin nods. “Well, no- I don’t understand because I haven’t been through what you’ve been through, obviously, but I can see how much you love your kids. You’re a great Dad, Archie.”  

He grins to himself. “Thanks… it’s weird. For weeks after I’d left, even after coming back here, I felt like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be, more out of place than anything else. I found myself wanting to go back to her, it was this… urge that I couldn’t seem to shake. Now I just… I don’t know, I miss her.”

Kevin furrows his brow. “But she was awful to you.”

He shakes his head.

“She wasn’t always.” Archie goes quiet for a long moment before continuing. “After she got pregnant she was a completely different person. She was more patient with me, and she glowed, just like all of those weird parenting magazines are always talking about. Things were good for a while, Ben was born and we were a normal family, well, as normal as we could be, given the circumstances. Then, she became pregnant again and it was like a switch had flipped in her brain, she was back to her old self.”

“I remember this one time, a few months ago, we got into this huge fight after Katie and Ben had gone to bed. I don’t even remember what it was about, probably money or something stupid, but she just kept screaming at me. She was saying: _You love them more than me, what do they give you that I don’t? Huh? I’ve given you everything._ ”

“Arch-.”

“The worst part is that she was right.” He interrupts, his voice beginning to crack. “She gave me everything. She gave me these kids, she took me away from this town, she gave me this new sense of fear and I didn’t know what to do with it. I still don’t know what to do with it.”

Archie has to stop after that, the all too familiar feeling of tears pricking behind his eyes giving him a solid reason. After letting out a shaky breath, he looks up when Kevin squeezes his knee gently.

“Can I give you a hug?”

Archie doesn’t even say yes, he simply shifts, moving further up the couch until Kevin can reach over and wrap his arms around Archie’s shoulders. It’s not the best hug that he’s ever given or received, but it’s better than any hug that Grundy ever gave him. Archie lets Kevin rubs his hands down his back, telling him that everything is going to be okay somehow.

He’s not entirely sure why, but Archie thinks he could learn to believe him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW There's some abusive language near the middle/end of this chapter. Fair warning.

_Archie is standing in his kitchen fixing himself a turkey sandwich when he hears the front door open. He doesn’t hear anyone come inside, but when he turns around Grundy is standing less than a foot away from him. Before he can speak, she moves closer, placing a hand on his chest and crowding him against the countertop, trapping him with her hips._

_He feels like his stomach is trying to escape through his mouth._

_“Come with me, Matty,” She says with a smug grin. “The kids are safe here with your Dad. It’ll be the two of us, just like in the beginning. Come with me. We can be together again.”_

_Archie can’t move, hell, he can’t even speak, his heart is beating too fast to focus on anything else. His silence must piss her off because her face goes cold, looking as angry as ever. Her hands move to his throat, squeezing with all her might._

_She screams in his face._

_“You were supposed to stay with me!”_

Archie wakes up with a gasp, somehow still feeling out of breath. It takes him a second to realize that he’d fallen asleep on the couch. It takes him even longer to notice that Jughead is standing a few feet away, looking about as panicked as Archie feels.

“Are you okay?” He asks carefully.

Archie shakes his head, pressing himself into the side of the couch and hiding his face in his hands. He hears Jughead walk away. The next thing he knows, a creak comes from the other end of the couch. Archie looks up from his shaking palms and finds Jughead with a glass of water and a few aspirin tablets.

“I don’t know about you, but I always get a headache after a bad dream.”

Archie smirks lightly, taking the water from him.

“Was it that obvious?”

“You’ve been making pained noises in your sleep for the last twenty minutes, so, yeah. It was obvious.”

He huffs, shaking his head again. “I’m sorry.”

Jughead gives him a puzzled face. “Why are you sorry? If anything, this is her fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you really think that we haven’t noticed how jumpy you’ve been? Yesterday, Vegas barked from the other room and I thought you were going to have a heart attack. I also noticed how you stiffen up around Betty and Veronica. With some of the shit you’ve told me about her and the things she did- look, no one expects you to be fine right now. I sure as hell wouldn’t be. What she did? That’s on her, not you, okay? _She did this_. You’re not the guilty one in this situation. The sooner you come to terms with that the better.” 

Archie nods, unsure of how to respond. He changes the subject.

“Where’s Katie and Ben?”

“Betty and Veronica took them to the park; they didn’t want to wake you.”

Archie thinks to himself: _Maybe next time you should._

***

Later that night, Fred walks into the kitchen just as Archie is pulling his pasta casserole out of the oven. The smug grin on his face makes Archie nervous.

“I have a surprise.”

Archie pulls a sour face. “I don’t like surprises near as much as I used to.”

“Your mom is coming into town. She’ll be here tomorrow.”

Archie’s heart skipped a beat; his Dad continued.

“I was thinking that we could have a little party here at the house- it doesn’t have to be anything special or big. It could be just us and your friends if you’d like. What do you say?”

Archie bites his lip, contemplating his Dad’s offer. He's really missed his mom; they’d spoken on the phone a handful of times, but she hadn’t been able to get any time off work. Now that he knows that she’s coming for sure, Archie feels oddly panicked. He realizes that he hasn’t said anything when Jughead nudges him lightly.

“That uh- it sounds great, Dad. I’m looking forward to it.” He responds, swallowing around the lump in his throat.

That night after Katie, Ben, and his Dad have all gone to bed, Archie finds himself on the couch, wide awake at midnight despite having woken up. He can’t stop thinking about tomorrow, about seeing his mom again. His palms begin to sweat every time that he thinks about it. Before he can stop himself, he’s pulling his phone out of his pocket, calling someone who he knows can calm him down.

 _“Archie?”_ Kevin asks as he answers.

“Hey.”

_“What’s up? Is everything okay?”_

“I dunno know.” Archie says, throwing his free arm over his eyes. “I just… I dunno know.”

_“Do you need me to come over?”_

“I don’t think so, I just kinda wanted someone to talk to.”

_“I totally get that. Jughead told me that your mom is gonna be here tomorrow, is that what’s making you nervous? Seeing your mom again?”_

“I think so,” Archie admits. “I don’t even know why. I mean she’s my mom for crying out loud. I’ve never been afraid of her before, so why is it bothering me now?”

_“Well, not to state the obvious, but all of us can tell that what Grundy did really had an effect on you. I’d be surprised if you said that you weren’t nervous.”_

“Really?”

_“Yeah. But- here, just think about it like this: we’re your family. Everyone who you love and who loves you will be there. We’re here to protect you, just like all of us know that you would protect us in a heartbeat. Does that make sense?”_

“Yeah, yeah it does,” Archie tells him, a smile spreading across his face. “Thanks a lot, Kev. It-… you’re really great.”

 _“You’re welcome, Arch.”_ He replies. _“I should go, but I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?”_

“Yeah, sure thing. Goodnight.”

_“Goodnight, Archie. Get some sleep.”_

He smiles to himself as he hangs up, feeling like a little school boy with the growing crush that he has on Kevin. Archie thinks that maybe it could happen someday... if he knew that Kevin was interested. Another part of him thinks that he’s too damaged to be with anyone. Besides, who wants to date a guy with no secondary education and two kids?

Archie lies there for a little while longer before he tiptoes up the stairs, careful not to wake anyone. He crawls into bed with a somewhat heavy heart, hoping that he can actually get some sleep.

Despite his best efforts, Archie can’t seem to sleep any later than 7:30. He lies in bed for over an hour until Katie wakes up, then decides that he’s going to make breakfast. Breakfast includes two kinds of pancakes, three different kinds of fruits, and a heaping plate of turkey bacon, extra crispy.

When Fred walks in, he takes one look at all the food has been prepared and says: “Are you tryin’ to fatten me up?”

Archie laughs lightly, grateful that his father still has his sense of humor.

All of his friends arrive by ten, more than willing to eat the leftovers from breakfast. Archie keeps looking up at the clock above the stove, his anxiety growing by the minute. His mom’s flight is supposed to land a little after eleven, and it’s a forty-five-minute drive from the airport to Archie’s house. He knows that he really shouldn’t be nervous, but he can’t help it. Once the clock hits noon, he can’t tear his eyes away from the door.

“Hey,” Jughead says, placing a hand on his shoulder blades. “She’ll be here.”

“I know, I just… I know.”

Veronica reaches across the counter, resting her hand on top of Archie’s.

“There’s only one route to the airport from here, she’s probably just stuck in traffic or something.”

Archie nods, squeezing her hand in return; he can’t bring himself to let go just yet. Sure enough, twenty minutes later there’s a knock on the front door. He’s on his feet in a second, hovering in the hallway, clenching and unclenching his hands into fists as his Dad opens the door.

Mary looks the same as she did when she came to town at homecoming his sophomore year. Same bright eyes and red lipstick, maybe a few more laugh lines than before, but she’s still his mom. She smiles widely at him when they make eye contact.

“Hey, mom.”

“Hi, honey.” She says, her voice cracking a little. “Can I give you a hug?”

Archie wants to say no, but he finds himself nodding anyways. They meet in the middle; Archie stiffens up without meaning to, but he finds himself relaxing into the hug the longer that it goes. Then, at some point, he realizes that his mom is wearing the same perfume that Grundy always used to, and he pulls away.

“C’mon,” He says, jerking his head towards the kitchen. “There are some kids that are dying to meet you.”

***

It takes him a little while, but eventually, Archie relaxes into the party. He laughs animatedly with his Mom and Dad, catching up on life and retelling old childhood stories. He lets Fred do all of the cooking, mostly because Fred refused to let Archie anywhere near the grill.

Ben seems to be having the time of his life. He’d had a shit eating grin on his face when Mary showed him the shirt she’d brought him. It’s a Flash t-shirt, he later ran up to everyone individually and promptly yelled: “Lookit! I’m little flash!”

Archie watched him run around with Kevin in the backyard, overjoyed at how well the two of them get along. Then, around two in the afternoon, Ben hit a wall, seemingly no longer interested in the party. Archie decided that it’s about time for a nap. He takes both Katie and Ben upstairs, waiting for them to fall asleep. Fifteen minutes later, he’s shutting the door to the guest as quietly as he can. Archie is standing in front of the refrigerator, looking for another soda when one of the floorboards in the hallway creaks.

“Benji, you know you’re supposed to stay in-.”

He comes to a halt as he sees Grundy standing in front of the side table, an unsettling, calm look on her face. Archie thinks he might puke; he hadn’t even heard the door open.

“You are not an easy man to find, are you, Mr. Andrews?” She starts. “I’ll admit, I was starting to think I’d never track you down. To be fair, I didn’t think that you had the guts to pull something like this.”

She takes a step closer and he flinches out of instinct. 

“I went to Louisiana first, seeing as you’d been so insistent that we go back. When you weren’t there, I tried Kansas City, then Boston. Hell, I even went back to that stupid restaurant you worked at in South Dakota, but no one could tell me where you were.”

 _Shit, Grace._ Archie had never gotten around to calling her.

“Then, a thought came to me: What if he ran off to Riverdale? I told myself no, no surely, he isn’t that _stupid_. Because why would he come back to the same place he’d already run away from to begin with?”

The back door opens behind him as she finishes yelling. Archie doesn’t turn around, but he feels a chill run down his spine when Jughead starts yelling.

“What the hell?” He keeps moving until he’s right behind Archie. “What is this? What the hell is she doing here?”

Grundy ignores Jughead’s outburst, doesn’t lose her eye contact with Archie.

“I want my kids back, Matty.”

“That’s not my name,” He says, his voice trying to escape him. “That’s not my name and you know that.”

Archie doesn’t have to turn around to know that all of the commotion has drawn the party inside. He knows that everyone he loves is watching as he desperately tries not to fall apart in front of this woman that ruined him. If he turns around, then he’ll have to see the disappointed looks on all of their faces, he can’t do it… not yet at least.

“Fine, _Archie_. You took my children away from me and I want them back; now tell me where they are!”

“You can’t have them.” He replies, shaking his head defiantly. “I won’t let you.”

“Oh yeah? What makes you so sure that they would want to stay with you? You’re just some dumbass kid who is in way over his head. I’m their mother, they need me more than you!”

Archie is about to scream at her when a movement off to the left catches his attention. It’s then that he realizes that Ben is standing on the staircase, watching all of this unfold with a very confused look on his face. Archie feels his heart tighten in his chest and then fall to the floor. This is exactly what he was trying to avoid; he was trying to keep Ben from seeing his parents fighting again.

Grundy spots him as well, and her smile turns from wicked to kind, as everyone hadn’t just seen her unleash her fury on Archie.

“Hi, Benny.” She coos, holding her hand out. “C’mere, we’re going home.”

Ben’s chin trembles, looking panicked.

“No, I wanna stay here with Daddy.” He cries, running down the stairs, narrowly avoiding Grundy’s reaching arms as he wraps himself around Archie’s leg. He picks Ben up quickly, shushing him and holding him against his shoulder.

Archie looks back to Grundy, noticing how her face has gone sour once again.

“I’m not leaving here without someone.” She tells him, her voice growing louder with each word. “I’m taking you or I’m taking my children, either way, I _am not_ leaving here alone.”

She’s giving him an ultimatum. Grundy is making him choose between her or his children. He’s had so many nightmares that have gone exactly like this, but he always woke up before he could make a choice. Now, however, in this moment, Archie knows exactly what he needs to do. He knows what the right choice is.

Archie turns to his left, making eye contact with the first person he sees.

“Betty, will you take Ben upstairs, please?” He asks, already handing off the three-year-old.   

She starts to shake her head. “Arch-.”

“Please, Betty.” He says, watching as she sighs defeatedly then moves up the stairs.

Ben starts screaming for him as soon as he realizes what’s happening, but Archie ignores it. He has to if he’s going to do this. He looks back at Grundy, panic filling his lungs and chest as he speaks.

“I’ll go with you.” He says carefully.

Grundy gives him a pleased grin, then crosses her arms over her chest. 

Archie turns around finally, coming face to face with his family, the ones that have tried so hard to make returning to town easier for him. His parents, Veronica, and Kevin all look slightly hurt and confused.

Jughead, on the other hand, looks downright furious with him.

“Don’t,” He all but barks. “Don’t do this, don’t go with her.”

“I have to-.”

“No! No, you don’t. Don’t go with her. What did she ever do besides break you, huh?”

_She gave me everything._

“I have to.” Archie repeats, and Jughead scoffs at him, turning away.

Archie looks at his parents, nodding and sending them a silent _if this doesn’t go the way that I want it to then please take care of them, I’m so sorry for everything_.

He looks at Kevin next and thinks that his heart might break in half. Kevin is looking at him with watery eyes, shaking his head minutely. Archie steps forward, wrapping an arm around Kevin’s shoulders and pulling him in for a hug. He whispers quietly in Kevin’s ear.

“Call your dad, tell him to track my phone. I’m so sorry for doing this to you.” 

All of them are left to watch as Archie leaves with Grundy, Jughead still yelling at him all the while. Once the door has shut behind the two of them, Kevin moves into action, swiveling around to face everyone.

He looks right at Fred.

“Get your truck. Someone go grab Ben, we have to move. _Fast._ ”

***

The longer that they’re in the car, the more panicked that Archie feels. He’s been in the car for nearly twenty minutes and nothing has happened. He’s been trying to avoid looking at his phone, for fear of Grundy spotting it and taking it from him. Archie is starting to worry that maybe Kevin hadn’t understood him, that no one is going to come rescue him from her.

“You’re unusually quiet.” She states. “What? Has the cat got your tongue for once?

Archie shakes his head, unsure of a way to respond that won’t come back and bite him in the butt later.

She holds out her hand in front of his chest. “Give me your phone.”

Archie sighs but complies. He then watches as she unrolls the car window just enough to sail his phone out the window.

“No need for that now, huh?”

“Nope.” He says, his tone defeated.

Five minutes later, Grundy pulls off onto the side of the road, turning the car off completely. She shifts, facing Archie.

“If you ever pull something like that ever again, it’ll be the last thing that you do. Do you understand me?”

He nods, not meeting her eye until she grabs his chin.

“I mean it.” She reaches under her seat and retrieves a small silver handgun, pointing it at Archie’s chest.

If his panic increases, he can’t feel it. Absently, he thinks that his body is going into shock. He doesn’t think he could fight her off even if he tried. 

“If you think that you can get away from me that easily then you got another thing coming, Matt. I am not just someone that you can run away from. You _embarrassed_ me. You made me drive across half of this country just to find you and then you made me look like a monster in front of our son. What were you thinking?”

“It’s not my fault that Ben knows how awful you are.” Archie deadpans. “I’m surprised that he didn’t figure it out sooner.”

Grundy moves the gun closer to his face. “You better choose your next words very carefully or I swear I’ll-.”

Before she can finish, two cop cars are pulling up and surrounding the car, the sirens roaring. Sheriff Keller’s voice comes from outside, demanding that Grundy drop the gun and put her hands up. The gun falls out of her hand and onto the floor just as a deputy yanks the door open, grabbing Grundy by the elbow and pulling her out of the car.

Archie doesn’t feel like he can move until he sees her being pressed against the hood of the car and handcuffed. Then, he all but flies out of the car, moving blindly. His brain is in overdrive, too focused on getting away from her that he doesn’t notice that Kevin is there until he smacks into his chest. Archie is bent over, heaving and crying as Kevin holds his head against his chest, his other arm snug around Archie’s waist.

He keeps repeating: “It’s okay. I got you. You don’t have to go with her. You’re safe now, I promise.”    

Archie looks up from Kevin’s chest just his father’s truck pulls up to the scene. Jughead jumps out of the front seat, a crying Ben in his grip. Archie pushes himself away from Kevin weakly, stumbling and falling to his knees as his son squirms out of Jughead’s hold and runs towards him.

“Papa, Papa!” Ben wails, throwing his arms around Archie’s neck. He keeps letting out hiccupping sobs as Archie holds onto him tightly, one of his hands covering Ben’s entire back. Archie is afraid to let go, worried that someone will try and take him away.

_I tried to leave. I was going to leave him. I was going to leave my children what was I thinking? Oh my god. What’s wrong with me?_

Surprisingly, Archie doesn’t flinch when another set of arms wraps around him from behind. He can hear his father’s calm voice in his ear, assuring him that everything is okay. Before he realizes it, the whole moment has turned into one giant group hug, both Kevin and Jughead joining in. Despite what just happened, despite how mortified he still feels, Archie swears that it’s the safest he’s been in years.

***

Later that night, after speaking with countless police officers, retrieving his now shattered phone, and promising Ben no less than a dozen times that no one is leaving, Archie and Kevin are lying side by side on Archie’s bed in the dark. They’re pressed together from their shoulders to ankles, both unsure of how to start the conversation. Neither of them really know how much time has passed when Archie shifts onto his side, allowing him to more comfortably rest his head on Kevin’s shoulder.

Both of them know that _something_ is going on here… but addressing the elephant in the room has been ninety percent of the struggle so far. 

It’s at this point that Kevin decides to speak up.

“So, I know that today was terrible,” He starts. “And you just got out of a very bad relationship, so you’re probably not looking for anything right now. I don’t want you to feel pressured just because I said something but I just, uh-… I want you to know that I’m here if you need me. If you ever decide that you would like to be a little more than friends, well I’d really like that, too. Also, I don’t want you to feel like you need to make a decision right now, you should take your time with this.”

This is everything that Archie has been waiting to hear for weeks, basically since he returned to Riverdale. He’s spent so much time daydreaming about this moment that he almost wants to ask Kevin if he’s being serious. He doesn’t ask, but he does crane his head upward so that he can meet Kevin’s eye.

“Does that sound okay?”

Archie shakes his head minutely.

“I don’t want to wait anymore,” He says. “I spent so much of the last few years just waiting for good things to happen. Now that I know that she can’t hurt me anymore, it feels like the good times are finally starting.”

Now Kevin shifts onto his side, facing Archie in the dark of his room, just barely illuminated by the moonlight breaking through the curtains.

“Then what do you want to do?”

Archie only thinks about it for a second before he reaches up and gives Kevin a quick kiss on the mouth. It doesn’t last more than a second, but Archie is so unbelievably glad that he did it. It makes him so happy. 

Kevin grins at him, looking both confused and pleased.

“How ‘bout we just take things slow to start out? Maybe with a movie date at the Bijou this weekend?”

Kevin nods. “Whatever you want… I’m here.”

Archie nods back, then finds Kevin’s hand in the dark and curls their fingers together. He thinks to himself: _this is everything that I’ve ever wanted. I’m so lucky that my life turned out this way._

If Archie kisses Kevin again before falling asleep, well, he decides that no one really needs to know about it. 

The next morning, Archie wakes up before everyone else, remembering that there’s still something that he needs to do. He untangles himself from Kevin’s limbs without waking him, grabs his phone, and then heads outside. He takes a seat on the front steps as he pulls up the phone number that has been burning a hole in his wallet since before he left South Dakota. It takes three rings before anybody picks up, Archie was starting to worry that the number had changed.

“ _Hello?_ ” A tired woman’s voice says.

“Grace? Hey it’s Ma- it’s Archie.”

A gasp comes from the other end; Archie smiles widely, ducking his head despite no one else being around.

“ _Archie,_ ” Grace says fondly. “ _Oh, honey, I was wondering if I was ever going to hear from you._ ”

“I know, I’m sorry that I took so long.”

“ _Oh, don’t worry about that, I’m just glad that you called in the first place. I take it that you’re on your feet? That you and those beautiful babies are somewhere safe?_ ”

“Yeah,” Archie replies truthfully. “We’re good. Everyone is okay… we made it out alive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that was all she wrote!
> 
> Holy crap, I'm so proud of this. This wouldn't have happened without Amy, all of you should go give her a lot of love. She's the brains behind this entire fic, honestly. Thanks so much to everyone who read, commented, or left a kudos. It means so much to us! I have some ideas for a companion fic, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not. Once again, thank you thank you thank you for reading this little fic, I sure hope you liked how it turned out. Have a great day!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm almost done with the third part/chapter, so I'll be posting over the course of the next two weeks or so!
> 
> Hey! Thanks so much for reading this fic! If you liked it, please leave a comment or a kudos, they make my heart happy. You can find me at my riverdale blog via tumblr (thejugheadchronicles). If you find any grammar errrors, please let me know and I'll fix them! Thanks again for reading this fic, have a great day!
> 
> Just a reminder: You can find Amy on tumblr as autisticarchieandrews.


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